


The Troubles of a King

by malum_animi



Series: Life's Treasures [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-18 08:10:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malum_animi/pseuds/malum_animi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After their escape from Azog, Thorin's troubles are far from over. With not only the sudden realization that his nephews might not want the throne, but also his unexpected feelings for Bilbo Baggins, Erebor looms in the distance and its weight has never felt heavier. </p><p>A prequel to Life's Greatest Treasures Come from Within</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I've fudged the timelines here. In order for my plot to work, I needed Fili to have been born in Erebor. I know he was born after but just imagine that Smaug didn't come until a year or so after Fili's birth. And that the battle at Moria didn't happen until a few years after Kili's birth, about ten years after Smaug. I don't believe I've mentioned anything like that in the other two but if I have please correct me and I'll edit things!

Thorin stood on the edge of the Carrock for hours looking over the distance at Erebor. For the first time in decades Thorin was seeing his home, his people’s home. The distance between the Carrock and Erebor seemed smaller the longer he looked and even the daunting darkness of Mirkwood seemed lighter.

“Uncle?”

Thorin glanced over, and took the bowl of stew Fili had held out to him. “What do you think Fili?” he nodded toward Erebor “This is the first time you’ve laid eyes on our home.”

Fili looked out, staring at the distant peak. “Its…I’m glad that we’re this close, that I can see…our home.”

Thorin watched Fili, he’d not known his nephew to stumble over his words since he was a Dwarfling. He looked out over the land again and sighed “It feels my heart with a joy I have not felt since you and Kili were born to lay eyes on Erebor.”

Fili’s lips quirked up and he glanced at his uncle “I’m glad of that.”

“I imagine my sister will be much of the same mind.”

Fili smiled then, his eyes lighting up “Yes! She’ll be overjoyed to have her home back.”

Thorin clapped him on the shoulder and pushed him back toward the Company “Go. Rejoin your brother.”  
“And you?”

Thorin gave his nephew a small smile “I have much to think on. And I wish to look upon Erebor some more.”

Fili nodded and walked off, and Thorin watched him sidle up close to Kili and press a kiss to his temple. He turned back toward Erebor and frowned. He wasn’t as narrow minded as his nephews thought, and he’d noticed their habit of avoiding questions about Erebor even back in Ered Luin. Not that they hadn’t been eager to help Thorin reclaim the mountain, they had been the firsts to pledge their loyalty to him when the Quest was announced. They talked of helping Thorin reclaim the Throne, of turning their mother into the princess she ought to have been. Jokingly called each other Heroes of Erebor much to Thorin and Dis’ amusement. But not once did they refer to Erebor as their home.

The more Thorin thought about it the more it troubled him. He had wanted nothing more for his nephews than for them to be happy. He wanted them to be proper Princes, to have the wealth, luxury and comfort that their station should afford them. He wanted them to have a stable home where no threat of a political marriage would tear them apart. But all his plans counted on them being happy in Erebor.

He didn’t return to the Company until late in the night, when all his Dwarves were asleep. He stood over Fili and Kili and watched them as they slept. Wrapped around each other so tightly one could barely tell where one ended and the other began. They were his pride.

“Thorin?”

Thorin looked over his shoulder at Bilbo, who—being less injured and too spooked to sleep—had volunteered to take first watch. “All is well, you may sleep if you wish, and I’ll take the rest of your watch.”

Bilbo shook his head “You’re injured and I’ll not sleep anyway. But if you don’t mind my company we can share it.”

Thorin nodded and sat carefully next to Bilbo, mindful of the deep bruises that marred his body. “I feel the need to thank you again Bilbo Baggins. That I have no more than bruises is entirely of your doing.”

Bilbo flushed and looked down “Not necessary, I only did what was right.” He glanced up, eager to change the subject “May I ask what’s on your mind? You were staring awfully hard at your nephews.” The news that Fili and Kili were Thorin’s kin had shocked Bilbo more than the reveal of their relationship, much to the amusement and relief of the others.

“I worry for them. I always have.”

“The life of an uncle I’d imagine, but can I ask why? They are strong fighters and follow your every word.”

Thorin sighed, he couldn’t readily speak to the other dwarves, the confines of Royalty made that near impossible. He could however talk to Bilbo, one not under his rule and not likely to judge him or tell his secrets. “I fear they don’t see Erebor as their home. Fili may have been born there, but he had no memory of it, and Kili was born and raised on the road.”

Bilbo hummed “I can see how that might be a problem, considering they’re Erebor’s princes.”

Thorin nodded “They are my treasures, worth more to me than a dozen Arkenstones. I wish to make them happy, to make them princes of a great kingdom. To make Fili Crown Prince and Kili Prince Consort.”

Bilbo sighed “Have you talked to them about this? It could simply be that they don’t know what to make of their future.”

“I have not.” He smiled ruefully “I am not good with words as you might have noticed.”

Bilbo chuckled “Yes well, at least you’ve stopped calling me everything but my name.” he smiled up at Thorin “Talk to them, it’s the only way you’ll know for certain.” He chuckled again and shook his head “Look at me, Bilbo Baggins, giving advice to a King.”

“You would make a good Advisor.” Thorin grinned “Bilbo Baggins, Hobbit Under the Mountain and Advisor to the King. Quite a title isn’t it?”

Bilbo blushed and stood up, stumbling over his words about his watch ending. Thorin’s quiet chuckles followed him to his bedroll and much like he told Thorin, he didn’t sleep, but instead of nightmares of pale Orcs and white wargs, he contemplated the title Thorin had jokingly given him and wondered if a simple Hobbit would really be welcome in a Dwarven mountain.

Thorin watched Bilbo as he curled up in his bedroll. He had originally been joking with the Hobbit, and the fact that in the space of a night he was joking with Bilbo surprised Thorin, after all, why would he want to stay in Erebor to begin with? It was clear that Bilbo would never be fully comfortable around the Dwarves, and missed his Shire as ferociously as he had in the beginning. No, Bilbo Baggins belonged in the Shire like Thorin belonged in Erebor.

But the part of Thorin that he had all but trampled down, protested. It said Erebor would not be right without the little burglar, and it wanted to keep him and make him the finest jewels and circlets, to bedeck him in the softest of cloth and—Oh Mahal help him, no. It couldn’t be. Thorin had long since given up on finding his One, convinced they had been lost to Erebor or Moria.

No. Thorin Oakenshield did not have a One. That particular gift was for Dwarves like Fili and Kili, not jaded, shattered ones like him. No matter that that little part of him all but screamed otherwise.

 


	2. Chapter 2

It took Thorin another three days before he could talk with Fili and Kili privately. It took them nearly a day to climb down the narrow steps of the Carrock and by then the sun was setting and none of them felt safe enough to wander far from the Company. This wasn’t a conversation Thorin wanted to have within earshot of the Company, so he waited.

They had made camp within a lush valley, only a day’s walk away from the home of Gandalf’s supposed friend when Thorin finally felt they were safe enough to pull his nephews away from the Company. Walking up behind them, he tapped them on the heads, smirking when they startled—Kili tipping sideways into his brothers lap—and gestured for them to follow him.

He didn’t stay to watch them scramble to their feet—he could hear it well enough—and headed off into the woods. He found a comfortable enough looking log and had just sat down when they appeared in front of him, looking confused—Fili—and ready to be chastised—Kili, and that made him wonder if they had done something worth being reprimanded for. “Sit.”

“Uncle?” Fili asked “Have we done something?”

Thorin snorted “No, although since that’s what you assume it does make me wonder…”

Kili huffed “in our defense Uncle that is usually why you ask to speak with us alone.’

Thorin would give them that. “No, you have done nothing wrong. I wanted to speak to you both about Erebor, and I want you to be truthful with me.”

They looked at each other “Of course Uncle, we always are.” Fili said.

Thorin sighed “Fili, when I spoke to you about Erebor on the Carrock, you spoke hesitantly, as if you were choosing the words that you though I wanted to hear. Now I will ask you both and do not mince your words. What are your feelings about Erebor?”

 They looked at each other again before Fili spoke softly, “All our lives, we have heard stories of Erebor, of the grand halls, and wondrous jewels, Mother would tell us stories of her childhood and so would you if we pleaded enough. We would have to be deaf not to hear how much the two of you long for the mountain.” He stopped and fidgeted “Kili and I, we always knew you’d go to reclaim Erebor, and we knew, especially after you had named us your heirs, that we’d go with you.” He ran a hand through his hair before dropping it down to lace his fingers with Kili’s, who took over where his brother left off.

“We know that you, and Dwalin, and Balin, and the others are here because Erebor was your home, and you want it back. It’s just…we don’t…” He trailed off with a frustrated sigh and looked at Fili.

“We don’t feel the same.” Fili finished, looking away from Thorin.

Thorin sighed “You do not consider Erebor your home.”

Fili shook his head “We were raised in Ered Luin Uncle, I know I was born in Erebor but the Blue Mountains is all we know, everything that’s happened in our lives has happened there, I won’t be able to look around the halls of Erebor and think about falling in love with Kili.”

“We’ve no connection to it beyond you and Mama.” They bowed their heads “We’re sorry.”

Thorin shook his head “Don’t apologize, I asked for the truth and you gave me it. I must admit, I never though you boys would feel like this.” He sighed, “Why did you come? I would have been happier to have left you in Ered Luin.”

Fili shook his head “We had to come, no matter what we felt.”

Kili nodded “We’re not doing it for us, we’re doing it for Mama. You didn’t see her that night after you told us of the quest. She cried Uncle, I’d never seen her cry like that.”

“What?” had it not come from the mouths of her sons, Thorin might not have believed it. Dis wasn’t one to show emotion like that, especially in front of kin. The last time Thorin had seen his sister cry was when he brought back the bodies of Frerin and Vili from Khazad-dûm.

“Not because she thought we wouldn’t come back, she was crying because she might get her home back. So we decided we had to come, for Mama’s sake.”

Thorin looked at them and sighed, reaching out to cup their faces “You are good boys. My sister was blessed to have such sons.”

Kili blushed and looked away, while Fili puffed up a bit with pride. Thorin pulled back “But that does not solve this problem. You are both princes of Erebor, and a prince cannot rule in a place he doesn’t consider home.” It had taken Thorin decades to be comfortable enough in Ered Luin to take up the title of King.

  Neither of them would look at him and he sighed “Fili, answer me honestly, have you ever wanted to take the throne after me?”

Fili sighed “I don’t know. I try not to think about it too much.” He leaned against Kili’s side. “I’m sorry Uncle.”

“Did you know, that when I announced you as my heir apparent, your mother slapped me across the face?” He chuckled, it hadn’t been the first time Dis had slapped him, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

Fili gaped and Kili tried not to laugh “But why?”

“She believed you to be too young, and that it wasn’t fair on you since you wouldn’t be raised like I was, in the courts of Erebor. That the role would you do more harm than good in Ered Luin. It seems that she was right.” Thorin sighed “I should have waited until Erebor was reclaimed to announce such a thing.”

“Uncle…I may not wish to rule now, but we don’t even have Erebor yet, that may change. I’ve never regretted being your heir.”

Thorin smiled at him “I know you haven’t, and you’ve done me proud, both of you.” He looked up at the darkened sky “Come, night has fallen and we’re all tired. We’ll speak on this another day.” He stood and clapped them on the shoulders.

They stood and looked at each other, holding another one of their silent conversations that Thorin sometimes marveled on—he’d not seen such a close bond before—before they both all but leaped forward and hugged him tightly.

He tensed but hugged them back roughly before pushing them away. “Away with you two!” they laughed but ran ahead, leaving Thorin to walk back toward the camp alone with his thoughts.  His two heirs didn’t want the throne—for if Fili didn’t want it, he knew Kili wouldn’t either—and their disinterest in Erebor hurt, though he didn’t blame them for it. He could only hope that might change once they reclaimed Erebor. Thorin didn’t want to think about what would happen if it didn’t. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fili and Kili are total mamas boys. They also have issues. Vili, as you might have guessed is the father of our two favorite princes.


End file.
